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The gore of midwifery...

1K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  DoomaYula 
#1 ·
Hola lovely folk -

Am wondering if you birth professionals can give me a bit of reassurance. I'm about to apply to study midwifery and am super excited about it...until I start thinking about blood and blades and such.

I can deal with the blood/fluids of a normal physiological birth but I get squeemish watching medical dramas. I can't look at friends wounds without squealing like a pig. How am i going to live through the inevitable c-sections that I'll witness, or episiotomies? Or other gorey blood stuff? Do you get desensitised to this stuff or am I on the wrong career track?

Tell me your stories. Thanks
 
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#2 ·
Hola a tu. Study homebirth midwifery. There's way less gore. Not necessarily less goop, but way less gore. I have never seen an episiotomy done at a homebirth, for instance. We wait for the mom to stretch. Any tears have been small ones. Best of luck on your journey...
 
#3 ·
Can you change a diaper? The average toddler's diaper is much worse than anything midwifery related, IMO. But it needs changed, so you do it.
Much of midwifery is stuff that needs to get done. You just do it. If you are at the hospital, and the doctor performs an epis, you are supporting the mom. You just get the job done and think about it later. Same thing with cutting the epis. The need to do it overwhelms the issues you might ordinarily have. Of course, never seen one at a homebirth, but totally comfortable with cutting one if the need arose.
Most people that are squeamish about getting blood drawn are absolutely a-ok with drawing someone else s.

You do get gloves, too. I'm not a naturally squeamish person, so I can't help you there.

The grossest thing I've done this month was totally optional. Right after my newborn exam, the baby started to poop meconium. Rather that let her poop on her feet, I grabbed the poop with my bare hand and let her poop into my hand while the parents grabbed a diaper. It's a whole lot easier to wash my hand off than wash sticky mec off the feet of a newborn baby. So, I'm probably nuts.
 
#4 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Apricot View Post
Can you change a diaper? The average toddler's diaper is much worse than anything midwifery related, IMO. But it needs changed, so you do it. .....
The grossest thing I've done this month was totally optional. Right after my newborn exam, the baby started to poop meconium. Rather that let her poop on her feet, I grabbed the poop with my bare hand and let her poop into my hand while the parents grabbed a diaper. It's a whole lot easier to wash my hand off than wash sticky mec off the feet of a newborn baby. So, I'm probably nuts.

LOL Yep, been there! Sometimes hearing these things from me, my friends or kids will say EW! How can you DO that? Or a client, after I've wiped her bottom during pushing (and she pushes out some poop), will apologize for the mess--I just say, Hey, no problem, I've got gloves and besides, ain't nothing you can't remove with soap and water....it's just poop.

I think that Apricot is saying that yes, you do get used to things like this. I mean, I've only ever been squeamish about my OWN blood, no one else's--but it's true that there is more goop (and poop) than gore, usually, and true (at least for those who stick with it) that you get used to dealing with goop and gore in a more matter of fact way as time goes on.

I will say that when I accompany a hospital birth, I have to pull up my coping mechanisms....not just because there is more blood (as with episiotomies) but the way most hospitals deal with all of it. Somehow there, it all just seems abnormal--even when a mom is having a (relatively) normal birth.
 
#6 ·
Vomit is way worse for me then blood or fluids or mec or mom's stool. But, you deal with it, and in the moment you have all this stuff to get done that you are just too darn busy to get grossed out, or I am at least. I am grossed out later occassionally, but while it is happening I just deal and do what has to be done. In the end, wiping someone else's poop off is really no different then wiping my own butt, and I have gloves at least at a birth!

A good tip is to keep an extra set of gloves in your pocket, since you never know when you need one. That has haved me from some yucky situations.

With time, even the epis and other things will bother you less- they'll always bother you some probably, but it does get better/easier.
 
#7 ·
having something to do helps- what I would say is to go to a few births and see- there are times when someone is vomiting or once in a while a like large bm in/ near my face where I have gagged --and I certainly have lost years off my life once an emergency is over and I have had the shakes and crying and generally fell apart then but when there is something to do there is almost no time to feel about it-- at some of the worst bleeding emergencies I have found my self- telling the mom jokes and lighten the energy around us get her to say with us ya know- not like a plan almost like I had no ability to hold it back -
now my grandmother who was a nurse and had 15 kids of her own- could not or did not handle household emergencies when it came to her kids getting hurt, there is one story about one of the uncles having a open and bleeding head she nearly fainted- other people it wouldn't have bothered her- someone else in the house organized what to do around her and she could tend to the wound after it was just a reaction she has
so all I can say is give it a try and see how you do-
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Apricot View Post
Rather that let her poop on her feet, I grabbed the poop with my bare hand and let her poop into my hand while the parents grabbed a diaper. It's a whole lot easier to wash my hand off than wash sticky mec off the feet of a newborn baby. So, I'm probably nuts.

Nope, not nuts, smart. And mec poop is sterile, isn't it?
 
#9 ·
Thank you all. This is exactly what I need to hear.

I wish I could just do homebirth midwifery but that's not how it works here - especially with the probable outlawing of homebirth in Australia next year
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Can't wait to be a student and hang out on the board more!
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#10 ·
I think it is something that you will have to see how you handle. Some people just can't control their physical responses to some things, it is so primal. I find that I see and have to work through lots of gross stuff: infected circumcisions, infected perineums, **STIs**, uncontrollable castor oil poops, times when the blood is gushing and you have to wade in it, etc. My worse experiences were when the crotch of my pants got soaked with birth fluids and I have to wear crunchy and damp jeans for the few hours postpartum (I was squatting and catching).

Honestly, the hardest thing for me to cope with, but I do and I try to never show my innermost thoughts, is babies who are born stillborn. I won't post more here, but in order to truly be with my clients, I take on a certain amount of vicarious trauma to help birth these babies, and care for their very fragile selves, the whole time fighting my own response to cry, weep, and avoid. I hope that doesn't bother anyone. Poor mamas and babies. While I am very proud to help women and families through those tough times, the physical aspects of the care are really hard for me.

Once, I almost fainted when witnessing a circumcision. I will never do that again. I couldn't control my physical response to that- the paediatrician laughed at me, and I got to say something clever back. All the while, feeling nauseous and light-headed. I find puke the worse normal bodily fluid but I just hold my breath and assist in preserving the woman's dignity.
 
#11 ·
The only thing that squicks me out a little is thick mec. And I've only seen that once. I'm not a huge fan of poop, but I don't think about it much -- like everyone said, you're not focusing on it, you're doing something, like wiping it or cleaning it or throwing out a chux.

Blood isn't so bad unless you're daydreaming while you're cleaning out a tub and accidentally turn on the HOT water instead of the cold and all the blood starts to clot. That was fun.
 
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